Without prepared spells on their side, mages would have never survived in a field like adventuring, or worse yet, in a war. Their spells were powerful, yes, but casting them required time, whereas an arrow could be loosed in the blink of an eye. Even the greatest spell was meaningless in the face of a good enough warrior… if they didn’t have any spells prepared beforehand.

  “Thorn School Variant 53: Final Vanguard.”

  A spiked shell made of crystal clear ice manifested around Carla in the nick of time. In the next instant, Edwin’s shin impacted the spiked shell of ice instead of the cloth and soft flesh underneath, possibly even saving Carla’s life.

  The Thorn school variants were Carla’s most trusted spells, as much as she hated to admit it. The 99 variants of which she knew, only ten or so were all reliable uses of her ice magic, designed to fit many situations while retaining efficient mana usage. They were clean, powerful, spells that were the result of decades of research by students and faculty alike.

  Final Vanguard was a particularly good example of just that, being pretty much a straight upgrade over the basic shielding spell she had been initially taught when she reached bronze rank a year or so ago. It used pretty much the same mana as Ice Shield, but had multiple weaker shields instead of only one, much more durable, layer.

  Some would have thought that simple change a downgrade, but that couldn’t have been further from the truth. Even though the opponent could break through one or even a couple layers, their attack would slow down with each layer their strike broke, and the sharp shards of ice that hurt the opponent right back were a welcome byproduct too. While the spell had a total of five layers, Carla hadn’t seen anyone break through even three of them…

  When Edwin’s kick crashed through the first two layers in all but an instant, Carla was still relatively confident in her family academy’s spell. When it continued straight through the third layer, she started to worry. When it broke through the fourth, and the man’s shin continued its flight straight towards the fifth… She knew she was fucked.

  The bandit king’s leg, riddled with small shards of ice and already bleeding from tens of small wounds, met Carla’s stomach with a thud. It wasn’t particularly loud, nor was it completely silent. Regardless of the sounds it made, it was effective.

  If Carla was willing to count the small blessings in that moment—which she definitely wasn’t—she could have compared her own impact to the one that had just hit Arthur. He had been hit significantly harder, but that didn’t mean a lot when he was a physical fighter and she was a gods’ damned mage!

  In moments like these, lying on the ground with no air in her lungs and a searing pain in her abdomen, Carla kind of wished that she was a physical fighter like Rodrick or Arthur. But that hadn’t been her fate, hadn’t it?

  “Good shield spell,” Edwin commented as he walked up to her curled up frame. “I think I heard the name ‘Thorn’ mentioned just now too… Would you happen to belong to that family?”

  As much as she hated it, a glimmer of hope entered Carla’s heart with those words. She didn’t like her family one bit, but if she could use it to stay alive in a situation like this…

  “Yes, I’m Carla Thorn!” she hated how desperate she sounded, but what else was there to do? A peak silver ranker was standing above her, ready to kill her at any moment, and if her family-.

  “I’ll be sure to deliver my condolences to your father personally then… Always hated that man.”

  Oh… Once again, the prestigious family name she had had failed her. I guess this is it then…

  “Ugh…” Carla’s eyes flashed up to where she expected the man to be at his pained grunt, and it was good that they did, because she wouldn’t have believed her eyes otherwise.

  There was a blade sticking right out from the man’s chest, and that blade could have only belonged to one woman. Ciel! She’s here!

  Carla turned around and cast her final prepared spell with a grin on her face. “Ice Lance!”

  Honestly, what did Carla even think she was doing, telling us to run and sacrificing herself? Valar scoffed. He was afraid, that was for sure, but when Ciel and Rodrick had turned right back after leaving Pixie behind a nearby tree, he’d known that he would need to head back too. Even though he was afraid, he wouldn’t be leaving his teammates behind like that.

  “Cast Lesser Fortify on me when I attack!” Ciel shouted to him as they ran back towards the clearing. “I can’t take a hit without it, but I’ll probably survive at least one with it!”

  Really? I’ve always fortified Rodrick though… Valar looked at Rodrick questioningly.

  “Do what she says,” Rodrick grunted. “I’ll have to only support Ciel this time due to my leg anyway. Also, I’ll survive a strike. Probably…”

  “Probably?”

  “He’s at the peak of silver rank,” the warrior grunted. “I can’t make any promises, even if he’s a life mage…”

  To Valar’s surprise, both Carla and Arthur were already laying on the ground when they arrived back at the clearing. He had thought that they could at least hold their own for a good while, but his image of someone at peak silver rank had evidently been quite a misguided one. For someone like Valar, who had only really seen fights at the iron and bronze rank level—if he excluded Viktor vaporizing Alyssa’s father and the spar between Selin and Troy—it had been hard to imagine what a peak silver ranker really looked like compared to his own teammates.

  Judging by the scene in front of his eyes, the gulf between a bronze and silver ranker was large…

  Still, he believed that they had a chance. If Ciel can ambush him, maybe we can overwhelm him long enough to escape. He shouldn’t be able to withstand that level of damage even if he can heal!

  Ciel seemed to agree with his assessment, dashing toward the bandit king as a blur of darkness. She was both fast and silent, a deadly combination for any assassin. And an assassin was just what they needed right now.

  Valar’s eyes widened with elation when Ciel rammed both of her daggers through Edwin’s back, and his grin widened as Carla launched an ice lance straight through the man’s stomach. Fortunately, he still followed through and chanted “Lesser Fortify” just in case.

  Fortunately indeed…

  Edwin’s elbow slammed against Ciel’s shoulder as he turned around, the daggers in his chest twisting painfully and causing even more damage. As Ciel flew away from the bandit king’s elbow, Rodrick descended with his axe in hand and slammed it down toward his neck.

  The leader of the Crimson Talon, his robe’s color reflecting the organization he led more and more by the second, grinned as he leaned slightly to the side, and Rodrick’s axe bit cleanly into the space between his neck and left shoulder.

  Valar looked on as more and more damage piled up on the bandit leader. Just over a second after Rodrick’s axe impacted the man’s shoulder, one of Arthur’s arrows lodged itself directly through Edwin’s heart. Valar even started to grin a little, believing in their chances more and more by the second.

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  By now, Edwin had two daggers and an arrow lodged in his chest, an axehead in his shoulder and a hole left by Carla’s Ice Lance in his stomach. Abyss, the man was surely near death by-.

  “Interesting,” Edwin grinned. “Your teammates are loyal people, Carla, but I’ll have to dash your hopes a bit…”

  No… Surely not, right?

  “A New Day.”

  Valar looked on in pure horror as the man’s aura erupted with the green hue of life magic and he started to heal. Rodrick’s axe, Ciel’s daggers and Arthur’s arrow were all knocked loose from the thin man’s body as green mana, visible to the naked eye, stitched the broken man back together in only a few seconds. During that time, his grin didn’t falter for a single instant.

  The young life mage finally understood the meaning between the bandit king’s fearsome title. Calling that… thing anything but a horror would have been a gross mischaracterization. He’s not a man, is he? He can’t be! People don’t just grin through those kinds of injuries, they just don’t!

  Edwin, with his body almost completely healed by now, stepped up to Rodrick. Fear flashed in the warrior’s eyes and he moved to block the strike, but it was for naught. Rodrick’s axe cracked and broke from the force of Edwin’s strike, and his chin was next.

  Valar cringed in shared pain as the Undying Horror’s knuckles impacted the tall man’s chin, the bandit king needing to extend his uppercut slightly above his own head to reach Rodrick’s chin. The warrior collapsed to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut, and didn’t get back up.

  “Who’s next?” Edwin asked with a relaxed tone.

  The next moment, his knee impacted Ciel’s stomach with such force that the darkness around her fell away. She impacted a tree at the edge of the clearing, knocked out cold just like Rodrick. There were only three adventurers left. Remembering how the fight had gone when just Carla and Arthur tried to take the man on, Valar’s hopes weren’t high.

  “This really is fun, you know,” Edwin laughed as he returned toward Carla, who was still lying on the ground. “I haven’t had to use A New Day in a long while, but using it sure brings a smile to my face. See, I invented that spell!”

  What do we do… What can we even do? Valar thought furiously, but no good ideas crossed his mind. His healing was too slow and he doubted his fire would be enough after seeing the man’s terrifying healing ability. In short, he, and by extension the whole team, were out of options.

  Edwin didn’t seem to care, more interested in his own monologue than whatever the three people who were still conscious were doing. “You see, I was never allowed to go to an academy because of the crimes of my parents. They were bandits just like me—although much less successful ones—and my father got caught before I could awaken. My name, face and whole identity were blacklisted from every academy, would you believe that!”

  “Yes,” Carla coughed. “Why should we trust a-.”

  “Rhetorical question,” Edwin snapped and lightly kicked the prone woman. ‘Lightly’ was apparently a loose term, as Carla screamed in pain from the force of the blow. “Yes, yes, getting hit hurts or something…”

  He dashed toward Arthur when he tried to draw another arrow and kneed him in the stomach, the man falling down on the ground unconscious the second Edwin stepped away from him. “Sometimes I wish everyone was like me, unable to feel this thing you call pain. Even the threat of pain limits you all every single day in your lives. What a waste…”

  Wait, what? “You don’t feel pain?” Valar blurted out with a confused tone.

  “The iron ranker speaks up!” Edwin grinned as he rushed over to Valar. “You’re an interesting lad, you know that? If you were less susceptible to pain, I could’ve even taken you as an apprentice, but alas…”

  Valar felt his world get rocked as Edwin slapped him lightly, and he fell on his knees, breathing heavily. The man looked down at him with a condescending look. “You’ll be the last one I’ll knock out. Now stay silent and listen to me monologuing!”

  He’s crazy! This man’s an abyss cursed lunatic, that’s what he is! Valar wanted to scream just that at the man’s face, but to his own embarrassment, he didn’t dare to open his mouth. Just like the man had said, the threat of pain scared him. He didn’t want to get hit again, to feel that pain…

  “Where was I…” Edwin fidgeted around as he started talking again. “Oh, right, my lack of schooling. Yes, I didn’t go to an academy, but that didn’t mean that I didn’t learn spells! The former group of bandits I belonged to managed to loot a caravan traveling to Rosthorn, and they had a life mage under them. We stole her books… What happened to her? Why can’t I remember?”

  Edwin seemed to have lost his train of thought completely, but he continued rambling nonetheless. “She was pretty if I remember correctly… Ohhhhh, right, the leader of that group raped and killed her! By the way, I don’t condone rape myself. That’s a type of pain even I can understand… I killed that guy, you know?”

  So, a lunatic with a code… Still a lunatic. We’re so dead…

  “Back to learning spells!” the man nearly shouted. “Because I only discovered the most basic spells from the book we stole, I needed to come up with my own! Did you know that the spellforms you use waste power for things like pain suppression and ease of channeling? My spells don’t have those restrictions, so they’re much better!” The man froze, then seemed to think over what he had just said. “Well, they’re much better for self healing… I designed all my spells for my own body, so I can’t really heal others, but who cares! That’s why I regenerate so quickly, you see!”

  Valar looked on in horror as the man skipped over to Carla and kicked her in the stomach again. “No!”

  “What? No?” Edwin turned to him when Carla slumped down. She had lost consciousness, that was for sure… “Are you dictating to me, boy?”

  Before Valar could even think of apologizing or even defending himself—as useless that would have been—another slap impacted his face. This one was harder. Much harder.

  Valar fell down on the ground, nearly losing consciousness right then and there. A couple of his teeth landed a few meters away, and blood pooled down on the ground below his face. It hurt so, so, much.

  “Out for the count?” Edwin laughed. “I guess I shouldn’t have expected more from an iron ranker. Now, to finish the job… Big guy first, I guess.”

  As he heard Edwin’s footsteps, Valar raised his head with panic in his eyes. “Shtop!”

  Edwin froze. Slowly, ever so slowly, the bloodied man turned his head, his eyes gleaming with sadistic glee. “Still up? Impressive!”

  The bandit king’s neck was turned in an unnatural angle, much like an owl turning its head toward prey. Soon, however, his body followed his gaze. “You’re much more interesting than I thought… Tough too!”

  Valar could only look on helplessly as the silver rank lunatic approached him step by step. Unlike the earlier times he had come close to the boy, the man seemed to take some kind of twisted pleasure in walking as slowly as he could. Valar felt like the moment could drag on for eternity, but eventually the man’s boot thudded in front of his face.

  “What will I do with you?” The man seemed to ask the question more to himself than anyone else, so Valar stayed silent. “You’re an interesting kid, and your aura seems much more ferocious than others of your rank. Tell you what, I’ll give you one shot…”

  Valar cringed with pain as the bandit king grabbed him by his hair and lifted, bringing his face to eye-level with himself. The gesture was laughably easy for the silver ranker, only further showing the enormous gulf of power between them.

  “One shot?” Valar asked. He wasn’t optimistic of his chances, but hey, he could at least hear the lunatic out!

  “Yeah, I’ll give you a free shot at me. One punch, kick, bite or whatever the fuck you want to do really—just no weapons. If you can make me bleed, I’ll spare your life!”

  What? Edwin’s wild suggestion sounded way too good to be true… Sure, Valar would have difficulties making the man bleed, but a chance to save his life? That was invaluable!

  “My teammates?” Valar asked hopefully.

  “Will die promptly,” Edwin smiled as if he was talking about sweet nothings with a close friend. “But hey, you could live!”

  That’s enough!

  Edwin dropped him back down, but Valar managed to keep his feet under him just barely. Valar’s disheveled black hair fell over his eyes as he rose to his full, admittedly meager, height.

  If the bandit king could have seen the boy’s eyes then, the following moments would have played out very differently. Valar’s path would have ended right there at the hands of the man who didn’t feel pain. But he did not see Valar’s eyes, nor did he gaze at his aura. What was there to fear from an iron ranker, after all?

  Inside Valar’s mind, there was turmoil. Two sides were clashing, creating a jumbled mess that would have been hard to comprehend even with the greatest magic. On one side, there was fear, exhaustion and dejection. Thoughts like “Does this even matter?”, “I’m dead anyway.” and “This is hopeless.” fought for supremacy, but they were losing to something greater.

  Desperation and pure unadulterated rage were growing rapidly within Valar’s mind.

  He’ll kill my friends if I don’t do something… I can’t accept that!

  I’ll kill him!

  In the end, just those thoughts wouldn’t have been enough. Fear and exhaustion would have most likely won out, and Valar would have thrown some half-hearted punch, dying to the Undying Horror then and there.

  But…

  Valar’s soul had something to say too.

  A new thought entered the boy’s mind. It differed from an earlier thought by only a single word, but that was enough to light his heart aflame.

  He did not desire to just kill Edwin, the king of the bandits, anymore. No…

  Valar wanted to burn him.